WILLY POGÁNY'S BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED AND WONDERFULLY PRINTED RUBAIYAT: SIGNED LIMITED EDITION

POGÁNY, Willy (illustrator). Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. London: George G. Harrap & Co., (1930). Octavo, original full turquoise morocco, gilt-stamped floral medallion with multicolored onlays to front cover, raised bands, top edge gilt, uncut, original publisher's box. $2200.

Signed limited edition of Willy Pogány's illustrated Rubaiyat, number 25 of 750 copies for sale in the U.K. (of a total edition of 1250 copies), with 12 mounted color plates and intricate in-text decorations, signed twice by the artist, elegantly bound in gilt-decorated morocco, in the publisher's original box.

Hungarian-born Pogány "specialized in gift book embellishment both before and after the First World War" (Harthan, 242). A prolific artist, Pogány produced illustrations for more than 150 books in his lifetime, including many classics of children's literature such as Mother Goose. He first illustrated the Rubaiyat in 1909 and provided a new, entirely different set of illustrations for this 1930 signed limited edition of Edward FitzGerald's classic 1859 translation. Khayyam's "brief verses vary in theme… from sophisticated satires on the unreasonableness of human passion to the passionate lyrics on the joys and sorrows of love and wine and on the wisdom of grasping pleasure while we can" (Hornstein, Percy and Brown 377). Signed by Pogány in ink at the limitation page and in pencil on the additional etched frontispiece. Greer 121d. Contemporary owner signature.

A fine copy in a worn original publisher's box.